AT&T has major cellphone outage in Kona Thursday (Dec 15)

AT&T Wireless has confirmed to Hawaii 24/7 that a large area in Kailua-Kona is without cellphone service. We’ve had a report of service being out since at least 2 p.m. Thursday (Dec 15). AT&T Wireless reports that they were made aware of the outage at 4:05 p.m.

The outage covers a large area of Kailua-Kona with an AT&T representative saying customers would have to travel 10 miles or more out of town for service. AT&T reports that engineers are working on the problem but their estimated time of repair of 10:53 a.m. Friday (Dec 16) or possibly sooner.

AT&T services in other parts of the Big Island appear to be unaffected by the outage except for contacting people in the affected area.

If you’re having problems with your AT&T service post a comment below so we along with others can estimate how large this outage is.

UPDATE (12/15/11 at 10 p.m.)

We’ve been hearing from readers that cellphone service has been restored but may be weaker, especially if you are not closer to town. But calls are going in and out again on the network.